Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has conducted his annual interview, making the club's intentions in the transfer market clear.
Comments
Sport
13:00, 29 May 2025
Khaldoon Al Mubarak of Manchester City gives his annual chairman's interview on 26 May, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Lexy Ilsley/Manchester City FC)
Khaldoon Al Mubarak of Manchester City gives his annual chairman's interview on 26 May, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Lexy Ilsley/Manchester City FC)
Manchester City want to conduct their main transfer business in the next fortnight, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has confirmed, as he admitted last summer's lack of activity 'cost' the Blues this season.
The Blues are interested in Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest and Tijjani Reijnders of AC Milan, while Rayan Cherki has been linked this week. A refresh of the goalkeeper department and full-backs could also be on the cards, while Pep Guardiola wants to trim down his bloated squad to avoid a repeat of the end of the season where he had to leave five or six players out for each game.
Guardiola said he would 'quit' City if he wasn't given a smaller squad, later backtracking on that threat but insisting that the club agree with him.
Now, in his annual interview, Al Mubarak has admitted that City got it wrong in last summer's cautious transfer window, which prompted their £180m spend in January. And looking ahead, Al Mubarak put a timeframe on getting the main business sorted before the Club World Cup, which begins in mid-June.
“We feel very good. We feel very good about these players - that's four players in January. And that gives you an idea of what's coming this summer because we will continue this summer with this, serving the needs of the club," Al Mubarak told club media.
"And I can tell you today, that's, I would say, day one of the new season, we have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. And we'll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift. And our objective is to try to be ready with the new squad for the Club World Cup.”
Reflecting on last summer's transfer window, which saw Savinho as the only major arrival, Al Mubarak accepted that City should have been more 'aggressive' as he echoed Guardiola's comments about rebuilding the squad in 2025.
He continued: “This club has gone through, as always, a regeneration. We've gone through, I think at least when I look at the last 16, 17 odd years of being involved in this club, so many different squads, and we've done it, I think, in a structured way over the years.
"When I look back, last summer, we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that and that ended up costing us this year. We already started that rebuild of this team in January.
"Normally we like to do our business in the summer and only in case of emergency, a special need that comes up, do we actually go and do business in January. That's been our MO at least for the last seven or eight years. But this January, we had to act.”
And in a message to fans - which will also act as a warning to City's rivals next season - Al Mubarak says he can sense a hunger in the squad to return to the Premier League title race and in Champions League contention.
“We will be back. This season is a season that's now behind us. Today is a new day. We start working and preparing for next season," the chairman vowed.
"And by the way, we've been doing that since January. And we will take all the good things and the not so good things from this season and learn from it and improve from it and get better. I can assure you, this club will do everything possible to come back to the standards that we know we all can achieve and that we know, we will achieve."
Content Image
Content Image
---
Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
*And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.*